Upset @ cruiser last Friday

Santander Silgado fought Shawn Cox in his native Colombia on December 19th. It aired live on TeleCaribe, which streams their boxing live - but I was unable to watch and do a RBR as it conflicted directly with the Stevenson vs. Sukhotsky card.

Both men fought - and were knocked out early by - Denis Lebedev in 2012. Silgado and Cox were his only two opponents that year, just as Roy Jones Jr. and James Toney were his only pair in 2011. (Lebedev had fought thrice a year from 2008 until 2010 following his four-year layoff from 2004 - but has since dropped to appearing only annually, losing to Guillermo Jones in May 2013 and not returning until September 2014 against Pawel Kolodziej, with his next bout scheduled for March 2015...)

Aside from just having been KTFO by Lebedev in 2012, they also have in common having done pretty well and conceivably ahead on points until the round in which they were stopped. The 1st in Lebedev vs. Cox was pretty close and could have gone Cox's way but he got leveled in the 2nd; Lebedev won the 1st against Silgado but dropped the next two straight pretty clearly before putting Silgado to sleep in the 4th.

Everything on paper favored Silgado. Cox is eleven years older (turning 40 this very week) and had been stopped thrice since the loss to Lebedev. Silgado on the other hand picked up a couple of knockout victories - including former interim WBA champ Steve Herelius - before putting up a decent fight against Rakhim Chakhkiev for the WBC Silver title, despite coming in overweight (15lbs over the CW limit!) and looking accordingly more sluggish than in his challenge of Lebedev. Both have pretty high KO percentages and comparable best wins (KO2 of Herelius for Silgado; KO1 of Braithwaite for Cox), but Silgado's power seemed more legit based on the eye test, and the competition from his W column of slightly higher quality than Cox's. In addition to being younger, faster and more athletic, with slicker boxing skills and having suffered less wear and tear (and fewer KO defeats), Silgado had fared better than Cox h2h and lasted twice as long with their common opponent in Lebedev, and has reached a higher career peak ranking by every org. Topping it all off, Cox was visiting Silgado's country on a 1-4 skid - clearly brought in to lose.

That isn't what happened, though.

The old Barbadian came, saw, and conquered in no time. :shock:

GIF 1 - http://nsa34.casimages.com/img/2014/12/20//141220042733983563.gif
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GIF 2 - http://nsa33.casimages.com/img/2014/12/20//141220043441673275.gif
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I didn't see this one coming. Best result of The Sniper's career by far, and one he likely won't top. As for Azúcar, this is a tough setback and puts him on a two loss streak and probably well outside the scope of contention. Given how old Cox is, likely to either retire on the high note or look to parlay this upset by landing a payday as somewhat-credible victim for another unbeaten prospect like the last two guys that kayoed him, Silgado is doubtful to get a chance to avenge it.

 

Really big upset IMO, considering that Cox really ought to be in the wind-down phase at this point and had seemingly lapsed into a pattern of showing up for paychecks and providing target practice - while Silgado appeared to be in his prime and had already had a recent "wake up call" over in Russia (where most observers felt that it would have been a very competitive and interesting match had Silgado come in shape...which he did for Cox, bang on the nose at the CW limit of 200lbs)

I had expected the loss(es) to galvanize Silgado, and that he would regroup and maybe work himself into the world title mix down the line with a bit of seasoning. After seeing the demolition job Cox put on him, though (even just from those few animated GIF images) now I'm not really sure he can maintain a consistent top 15 spot in the division. I'm torn between wondering if my seeing potential in him from the Lebedev & Chakhkiev losses was foolish, or if writing him off now because of the Cox loss is. :think

If he does end up going nowhere, he will continue a disheartening trend of me declaring that underdogs coming up short against excellent champions but putting up a good effort will go on to do big things in the division and pick up a belt themselves. My predictions for:

• Silence Mabuza after his tough losses to Rafael Marquez (figuring, correctly, that Rafa would move up to super bantam...and incorrectly that Silence would rule 118 in his stead. He wasted the remainder of his prime years on middling opposition in South Africa before Yonnhy Perez finished him off...)
• Cesar Seda after his challenge of Omar Andres Narvaez (figuring, incorrectly, that El Huracán would soon choose to retire undefeated - this being of course before he moved up for a Donaire payday...and incorrectly that Seda would hold a belt of his own within a year or two. He did at least contend for one again, last year, but couldn't thwart LSC...though he was game again...)
• Victor Manuel Cayo after his tussle with Marcos Rene Maidana (figuring, somewhat correctly, that Maidana would soon move up to welterweight - it took him two more years to actually do so ...and incorrectly that Cayo would step into the void and find a place for himself among 140lb titlists. Cayo would be knocked out by light-hitting Lamont Peterson in an eliminator and has been relegated to mere 10-rounders ever since, and knocked out four more times :!

...all backfired.


I still maintain that all three were very good fighters and had all the h2h potential I saw in them as of when I said all that, but varying circumstances just didn't lead them down the path to success. (the Marquez wars took a toll on Mabuza, and inactivity ruined the window in which he could have still eked out a brief reign anyway before getting to be over the hill for a bantamweight; Seda is still a very good fighter, but seems to have consistent trouble making weight and has climbed up four divisions in five years, which kind of spoiled his chances of exploiting a thin super fly division and knocking off a weaker titlist after his loss to Narvaez - he's now competing up at super bantam, where I think he is just too small to hang with the best; Cayo was extremely talented but had lots of personal & professional troubles outside the ring and was cursed with pretty skimpy punch resistance which seems to worsen more with every beating he takes...)


I'm sure there have been even more examples but those ones stick with me. :verysad

 

I'd say that Santander is a similar case to Mermelada, in that his chin is tragically in proportion inverse to his natural athletic talent (particularly as corresponds to boxing) - but with Cayo, he proved time and time again from Maidana on that he couldn't take a flush shot from even a moderate puncher. To be fair, of his six KO losses four came against truly powerful guys in Maidana (though his power and technique would improve later at welter under Garcia), Taylor (although his power becomes a non-factor if you can outbox him like Algieri, or Broner in the 2nd half of their engagement), Garcia (even though he is p4p maybe the slowest-handed person in the sport), and Zepeda (though he is untested and his zero & high KO rate seem very padded beyond Cayo's name) - but Peterson? Shot old blown-up Campbell? :blood

I'm still a fan, but have long since come to grips with the fact that Cayo is just too fragile to compete at the highest level.

Silgado, though - yeah, he was basically one-punched by Lebedev...and obviously rag-dolled from the jump by Cox...but...he went twelve with Chakhkiev. While horribly fat and unconditioned. :?

It just doesn't make sense.

I think maybe his chin isn't straight up terrible - just average, not something he wants to leave hanging out, let's say - but his problem is laziness and concentration. He was actually schooling Lebedev heading into the 4th, with lots of momentum from the previous six minutes of action, but then inexplicably began to slug it out - and paid the price. Maddening. Then, his weight issues with Chakhkiev. If memory serves he might have been on short notice for that, but still, whatever time was afforded him didn't amount to much of a hardworking 'camp' as he looked very much like someone from the crowd that put down his beer and climbed into the ring. Then, you have what may very well have been a case of taking a pushing-40 Cox on a bad skid, with home country advantage, very lightly and once again not training his absolute best (although he was at least fit and made weight) and/or coming in with the right mindset.


Mental fragility can be just as difficult a flaw to overcome as physical, in this sport. A lot of guys never manage to remove their head from up their own ass, squandering their potential because of it. Theoretically, however, it can be fixed - unlike poor Cayo with his chin, which is something he can't do squat about.

 

Yep. I remember. Same thing he tested positive for the first time, right? :-(

...which is what made it "okay" when Lebedev was gifted an easy foothold back into a championship seat against Kolodziej (who actually was supposed to have fought Lebedev back in 2012, probably on the same date that Silgado ended up doing so, pending an eliminator with Garrett Wilson. Kolodziej withdrew from the Wilson bout with a hand injury and ended up having to wait two years to meet Lebedev...)

 

Dude, I refreshed Boxrec a few times on Friday night after Stevenson vs. Sukhotsky was over but nobody had updated the page yet.

The next day I refreshed it and just stared at it dumbly for a few minutes, and thought "Huh. The editors screwed up and put their names in reverse order...:huh"

That's how little sense the result made to me.

I was just assuming I hadn't missed anything too intriguing thinking it would be an easy blowout for Silgado, a KO1 or something.

 

Silgado (who at his peak was #11 WBA and somewhere around there in the WBC as well) was as of last week rated #20 by the WBC and did not appear in the WBO, IBF or WBA top 15.

So it would be unlikely that Cox will appear on any of those lists on the back of this upset.

 

They did switch Boxrec places.

Silgado was #51 at Cruiser, now #79. Cox was #199, now #56.